AA battery hitting 3000 lumens?
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mattheww50
Flashlight Enthusiast
As others have pointed out... With enough batteries it should be possible.
I tend to look at the problem from the other end. At high output levels, you are lucky to achieve 100 lumens/watt overall efficiency (OTF lumens, Driver efficiency etc). So 3K lumens means you are going to need at least 30 watts to power the things. That's just barely achievable with 3 18650 Li-Ion cells. A quality NiMh AA is about 2600mAh, which makes the total energy available about 3 watt hours. A 3100 mAh 18650 is about 11.5 watt hours. So if you want 3k lumens, and run times comparable to say a Supbeam X40, you are going to need about 12 AA's to have comparable energy storage.
I tend to look at the problem from the other end. At high output levels, you are lucky to achieve 100 lumens/watt overall efficiency (OTF lumens, Driver efficiency etc). So 3K lumens means you are going to need at least 30 watts to power the things. That's just barely achievable with 3 18650 Li-Ion cells. A quality NiMh AA is about 2600mAh, which makes the total energy available about 3 watt hours. A 3100 mAh 18650 is about 11.5 watt hours. So if you want 3k lumens, and run times comparable to say a Supbeam X40, you are going to need about 12 AA's to have comparable energy storage.
StorminMatt
Flashlight Enthusiast
12AA batteries really isn't alot. The Coast HP550 uses 9AA batteries. And it's roughly the the size of a 2D Maglite. That particular light uses a battery holder that holds the batteries in a 3s3p arrangement. So the logical arrangement for 12AA batteries would be 4s3p or, for more voltage, 6s2p. Such a light would not need to be any larger than a 3D Mag. However, charging all the AA batteries in an HP550 is enough of a pain. Charging 12 would require one hell of a charger. In the end, C or D cells would be more practical if you want to run a 3000 lumen light from NiMH.
One thing that needs to be remembered about NiMH is that, although energy storage is relatively low due to low voltage, the ability to crank out the amps (compared to Li-Ion) means that power is quite high. Your average Eneloop is actually capable of delivering 10A with a terminal voltage of a little over a volt, for a total of about 10W. So it only takes three Eneloops to get 30W. Granted, runtime is low. And this is not the best use of batteries. But with the aforementioned 6s2p arrangement, you would only need to draw about 2A from each battery to produce 30W from the battery pack. And this is child's play with pretty much ANY NiMH AA out there. Even with just six AA batteries in series, current draw would only have to be four amps, which is perfectly doable with quality cells.
One thing that needs to be remembered about NiMH is that, although energy storage is relatively low due to low voltage, the ability to crank out the amps (compared to Li-Ion) means that power is quite high. Your average Eneloop is actually capable of delivering 10A with a terminal voltage of a little over a volt, for a total of about 10W. So it only takes three Eneloops to get 30W. Granted, runtime is low. And this is not the best use of batteries. But with the aforementioned 6s2p arrangement, you would only need to draw about 2A from each battery to produce 30W from the battery pack. And this is child's play with pretty much ANY NiMH AA out there. Even with just six AA batteries in series, current draw would only have to be four amps, which is perfectly doable with quality cells.
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